This invention relates to apparatus for efficiently passing a length of a tie-down banding material underneath a shipping pallet upon which cargo is loaded so that the ends of a band can be looped about the cargo and joined together thus securing the cargo to the pallet.
Typically metal or plastic tie-down material is provided to the end user wound upon relatively large spools. The spool assemblies are, in turn, mounted upon carriages so that the assemblies can be easily moved from place to place. The banding material that is stored upon the spool generally assumes its stored shape upon the spool and thus tends to curl when unwound from the spool. This, in turn, makes it extremely difficult to pass the free end of the material underneath a pallet. The free end of the banding material generally turns back upon itself and becomes entangled between the platform planking of the pallet.
Various attempts have been made to correct this problem, however, none to date have been entirely successful. For the most part these prior art devices are cumbersome and thus difficult to move about a work area. In addition, these prior art devices typically can only service one size pallet using a single size tie-down band which limits their usefulness.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve apparatus for banding cargo to a pallet.
A further object of the present invention is efficiently passing a tie-down band beneath a cargo pallet.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide apparatus for passing tie-down bands of varying sizes efficiently beneath cargo pallets having different lengths.
These and other objects of the present invention are attained by a guide for passing a tie-down band beneath a pallet that includes a guide body having a pair of spaced apart parallel slotted holes passing through the body. The slotted holes are sized to provide a close running fit for a band suitable for tying down cargo mounted upon the pallet. One end of the band can pass through one of the slotted holes, then being looped around and passed back through the other slotted hole to secure the band in the guide body. An elongated handle is secured to the guide body, the handle having a length sufficiently long enough to pass the guide body underneath the pallet between the pallet skids.
In another form of the invention, a plurality of guide bodies are arranged so that they each can be interchangeably connected to any one of a number of handles each of which has a different length. Each guide body contains a pair of spaced apart parallel slotted holes that pass through the guide body. The hole pair in each guide body is arranged to provide a close running fit with a specific size band. Accordingly, a selected guide body can be mated with a selected length handle to service different length pallets carrying varying types of cargo.